1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to an optical connector used in the connection of optical fibers, and in particular, to an optical connector that can be attached to the distal end portion of an optical fiber at a connection site or the like.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, an on-site installable optical connector has been proposed that enables the connectable termination of an optical fiber at a connection site other than a factory (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. H10-206688), and various types of on-site installable optical connectors have been conceived according to this proposal. Note that an on-site installable optical connector is a type of optical connector in which the ferrule polishing operation following connection is omitted by inserting and fastening an optical fiber into a ferrule whose distal end has been polished in advance. The operation in which the optical connector is attached to the distal end portion of an optical fiber that is not on-site installable includes the steps of inserting the optical fiber (optical fiber cord or the like) in advance into all connector housing parts such as a rubber boot, polishing the distal end of the ferrule after the distal end of the optical fiber (for example, the bare optical fiber that has been exposed by removing the resin coat on the distal end of the optical fiber cord) is inserted into the ferrule, and then completing the assembly of the optical connector as a whole.
Recently, accompanying the progress in the spread of optical fiber networks, there has been a demand for enabling installation after attaching an optical connector to the distal end portion of an optical drop cable and an optical indoor cable. However, when a conventional on-site installable optical connector is used on these optical cables, the outer cover of the distal end portion of the optical cable is simply removed to expose the coated optical fiber, and then the on-site installable optical connector is attached to the distal end portion of this coated optical fiber. Covering the outer cover with a rubber boot is difficult, and assuming this has been carried out, it would be difficult to consider this to be easy to handle.